…and the first thought that came to mind after the lights came up was this: “I wish Pixar would stop making movies that make me cry.”

I mean, I’m a 32-year-old man! I have a shaved head (approximately 70% of which is by choice)! I have piercings! Tattoos! And yet there I sat, teary-eyed like a school boy with a skinned knee, all because of a cartoon about an old man and his floating house!

Man… you’re ruining my street cred, Pixar!

The screening was at El Capitan… wait a minute. Let me back up a second.

Last night, Kathy and I watched the series premiere of the new show “Glee.” I thought it was alright, but Kathy absolutely loved it. She especially loved the character of Sue, a hardass cheerleading coach as played by the always brilliant Jane Lynch.

For those of you who don’t know, Jane Lynch is a character actress who has been in “Best In Show,” “A Mighty Wind” and “Talladega Nights,” to name a few.

Here she is in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” with Steve Carell:

Anyway, on our way to the theater, Kathy was talking to our friend Lille about “Glee” and how much she loves Jane Lynch. Fast-forward ten minutes to us taking our seats in the balcony directly next to… Jane Lynch.

Once again, Los Angeles doesn’t fail at being both insanely bizarre and incredibly ironic.

But let’s get back on track here and talk about “Up.”

First, I should point out that I had fairly high, yet limited expectations for this movie. I had high expectations because in Pixar’s previous nine attempts I’ve only been disappointed once (“Cars”); I had limited expectations because it was the follow-up film to “Wall-E,” a movie I not only think is their best, but also my favorite movie of 2008.

So I walked into the theater both excited and realistic. I assumed we would be seeing a movie that was somewhere in the realm of pretty good, but far from the world of perfection.

I was wrong.

Pixar has somehow managed to take a story about an old man, a young boy, a talking dog and an exotic bird and turn it into a movie that has more heart than 99% of the live-action films being made today.

I found myself actually caring about this old fart! I cared about his past, his well-being… even his house! And he’s played by Ed Asner! What’s wrong with me?!?

But the truth is that there’s nothing wrong with me. The folks at Pixar have just become as masterful in their storytelling as they are in their animation. Because of this, we’re given movies that are as brilliant as they are beautiful.

I said this in the car on the way home, and the more I think about it the more I think it’s true: Pixar makes great movies because their audience isn’t necessarily a deciding factor. They make great movies for themselves; each film seems to be an extremely personal creation to everyone on the team. You can sense it.

That’s why their films aren’t littered with catchy radio-hit jingles, or princes and princesses waiting to fall in love after 90 minutes. They make movies they like to watch. And because of that, most of us like to watch them, too.

I’ve said this in the past about Pixar and I hope it never ceases to be true: What they produce not only impresses me, but it also makes me insanely jealous. It makes me think, “Why couldn’t I have thought of that?” or, “How can I create at least one thing this brilliant before I’m placed in a pine box?”

“Up” is proof of the fact that Pixar’s products consistently go well beyond the boundaries of good filmmaking and enter the realm of cinematic excellence.

I could bore you with story plots and sound design and character outlines, but none of that is as important as me saying this to you: Go see “Up” as soon as you possibly can. You won’t be disappointed.

Wait. All that construction in Cali adventure will be “Cars” ??? oiy! I guess cars ARE “California” and will allow for more speedy things but how the heel are they going to get people into a car costume!

Yeah, I’m right there with you on the state of Pixar. Loved — LOVED — every film they’ve made (with the exception of Cars, which you explained perfectly why that movie didn’t work for us. I still think that movie was made purely for merchandising) to the point of tears and sobs and self-loathing for crying at a “kids movie”.

The trailers for Up haven’t really done anything for me. They look pretty, but they don’t give enough of the story for me to become invested in and, while that’s not going to stop me from seeing it — twice — I’m afraid that will hurt them when it comes to drawing in other movie-goers.

I know what you all mean about sequels. Some people around here were a little disappointed at first when we found out we were making two in a row as well. But as it turns out, sequels make lots of money because the fan base is already built in, much more than original stories. Doing a sequel every now and again helps to finance the original ideas that everyone gets excited about. The next two films after Toy Story 3 (saw the reels, it’ll be good!) and Cars 2 will both be original stories. And the art I’ve seen from them is fantastic. Also, each film has an original short that plays in front of it, and these are often really interesting. Toy Story 3 has an opening short that is unlike anything Pixar has ever made before, and will definitely be worth the wait!

Up was amazing and I cried…twice. If you don’t you may be missing a soul.

On the sequels, I love both of the Toy Story movies. I think there is more from the well with those characters. I would like to see more Buzz and Woody together as a team this time out. Toy Story 2 had them apart for too much of the film.
Cars, I loved as well. It was beautiful and as a NASCAR fan (Go ahead and get your diggs in, I’ll wait) it had nice nods to american car and racing history, but I’m not sure it really needs a sequel. I would rather see a Monsters Inc. sequel before revisiting Cars.

I think you would all be interested to know it was just recently announced that we are also opening a studio division in Vancouver, BC. This is good news for those who want to spend more time on original content. The idea for the second location is to relegate more of the secondary work, ancillary projects like commercial spots, etc, and legacy work to this Canadian studio so that we can focus on developing original features…Plus it takes advanatage of Canada’s great pool of animation talent. Projected opening of the studio is this fall.

Also I tried to see Up in 3D at a 10:45pm screening on Sunday night and it had already sold out 3 hours earlier…It’s so exciting to see the positive reaction everywhere!

Second, it’s a knee jerk thing with the NASCAR. I am an island of going fast and turning left fandom. The up shot is wearing my NASCAR hat to Gallery Hop. The whispered comments are priceless. Good fun.

Ok how wierd is this: I go downstairs to lunch just now and who do I bump into but Jane Lynch! She’s in the building! It was just so ironic that she was the subject of the beginning of your Up review 🙂 She was wearing glasses and looked a little different in person, but the voice was unmistakable. That’s one of the really cool parts of working here, you never know who you might bump into on any given day…

Shady you were asking about the space here. It’s very cool, a campus really, with multiple buildings, an outdoor pool, sand vball court, quarter mile nature walk, and a soccer field which is being relocated because a new building is going in. I’ve been enjoying the sound (and feel) of piledriving right outside my office window for a few weeks now, and hopefully actualy contruction will begin soon 🙂

One of the best aspects of being part of Pixar is that we are encouraged to take continuing education courses, offered during the day and on the clock, in areas like anything from Italian to fencing, sculpture to poetry to core fitness. There are so many different classes offered. It’s just an amazing place to come to work everyday.

They are hiring lots of technical artists over the next year or two. You should see the aggressive release schedule between now and 2012. It’s going to take a lot of man power to get all that work done…